Very sad news to report, especially for fans of crime fiction and wonderful writers in general: Elmore Leonard, the author best known for books such as 'Get Shorty,' 'Out of Sight' and 'Jackie Brown' (all of which were adapted into fantastic films, of course), has died at the age of 87.

Leonard suffered a stroke last month and had been recovering in Michigan, the state he has called home since he was 9 years old. It briefly looked as if he'd recover, but recently the writing had been on the wall that the outlook for the author wasn't bright. Leonard was reportedly surrounded by family when he passed. News of Leonard's passing was confirmed by his official site.

Leonard's legacy as a writer of entertaining crime-pulp novels is nearly unmatched in modern-day literature. With over 40 novels, nine screenplays and dozens of short stories under his belt, the man known as "Dutch" to his friends was certainly as formidable as some of his hard-boiled characters.

Perhaps his biggest fan was Hollywood; several of his works have been adapted for both the big and small screen. Aside from the aforementioned titles, '3:10 To Yuma,' 'Be Cool,' 'Mr. Majestyk,' 'Freaky Deaky' and 'Killshot' were all made into films.

Most recently, Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole" provided the inspiration for FX's hit series 'Justified'; the character of Raylan Givens (played by Timothy Olyphant in the show) also appeared in two of the author's novels. Late last year, 'Raylan: A Novel' was published; Leonard claimed he was inspired by the show's success to write a new book focusing on the character.